Analysis of the differential expression of serum miR-21-5p, miR-135-5p, and miR-155-5p by Bifidobacterium triplex viable capsules during the perioperative stage of colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we investigated the impact of perioperative administration of Bifidobacterium triplex viable capsules on the serum levels of circulating miR-21-5p, miR-135-5p, and miR-155-5p in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). The purpose of this study is to provide a foundation for future research on the use of Bifidobacterium triplex viable capsules to enhance postoperative recovery in patients with CRC. METHODS: A total of 60 patients with primary CRC admitted to the Department of General Surgery at Shanxi Bethune Hospital between June 2020 and December 2020 were selected and randomly divided into two groups: 20 cases in the control group and 40 cases in the experimental group. The experimental group was administered oral Bifidobacterium triplex viable capsules during the perioperative period, while the control group was administered oral placebo. Before and after the perioperative period, the expression levels of miR-21-5p, miR-135-5p, and miR-155-5p were compared in the serum of both groups of patients. Furthermore, we established the prognostic value of these three miRNAs in CRC patients. RESULTS: After surgery, the expression levels of miR-21-5p, miR-135-5p, and miR-155-5p decreased in both groups of patients (P < 0.05). Significantly greater differences were observed between miR-21-5p and miR-135-5p (P < 0.001). Expression levels of serum miR-21-5p (P = 0.020) and miR-135-5p (P = 0.023) decreased significantly more in the experimental group than in the control group. The levels of the above three miRNAs after surgery did not correlate with 3-year OS (HR = 4.21; 95% CI 0.37-47.48; log-rank P = 0.20) or 3-year DFS (HR = 1.57; 95% CI 0.32-7.66; log-rank P = 0.55) in two groups. CONCLUSION: Radical surgery reduces the levels of serum miR-21-5p, miR-135-5p, and miR-155-5p expression in patients with CRC. The use of Bifidobacterium triplex viable capsules assists in achieving quicker perioperative recovery from radical surgery in CRC patients, and this underlying mechanism may be associated with the regulation of serum miR-21-5p, miR-135-5p, and miR-155-5p expression levels.

Optimizing a High-Entropy System: Software-Assisted Development of Highly Hydrophobic Surfaces using an Amphiphilic Polymer.

In materials science, the investigation of a large and complex experimental space is time-consuming and thus may induce bias to exclude potential solutions where little to no knowledge is available. This work presents the development of a highly hydrophobic material from an amphiphilic polymer through a novel, adaptive artificial intelligence approach. The hydrophobicity arises from the random packing of short polymer fibers into paper, a highly entropic, multistep process. Using Bayesian optimization, the algorithm is able to efficiently navigate the parameter space without bias, including areas which a human experimenter would not address. This resulted in additional knowledge gain, which can then be applied to the fabrication process, resulting in a highly hydrophobic material (static water contact angle 135°) from an amphiphilic polymer (contact angle of 90°) through a simple and scalable filtration-based method. This presents a potential pathway for surface modification using the short polymer fibers to create fluorine-free hydrophobic surfaces on a larger scale.

Challenges in Determining the Location of Dopants, to Study the Influence of Metal Doping on the Photocatalytic Activities of ZnO Nanopowders.

Impurity doping is one of the common approaches to enhance the photoactivity of semiconductor nanomaterials by increasing photon-capture efficiency in the visible light range. However, many studies on the doping effects have produced inconclusive and conflicting results. There are some misleading assumptions and errors that are frequently made in the data interpretation, which can lead to inconsistent results about the doping effects on photocatalysis. One of them is the determination of the location of dopants. Even using advanced analytical techniques, it is still challenging to distinguish between bulk modification and surface modification. The paper provides a case study of transition-metal-doped ZnO nanoparticles, whereby demonstrating common pitfalls in the interpretation of the results of widely-used analytical methods in detail, and discussing the importance of using a combination of many characterization techniques to correctly determine the location of added impurities, for elucidating the influence of metal doping on the photocatalytic activities of semiconductor nanoparticles.

Preparation of (Fe, N)-doped TiO2 powders and their antibacterial activities under visible light irradiation.

Yellowish (Fe, N)-doped nanocrystalline TiO2 powders have been prepared using TiOSO4, CO(NH2)2, Fe(NO3)3.9H2O and CN3H5.HCl as precursors by hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized powders were anatase in phase and the grain size was about 10 nm according to the TEM photos. The ratio of Fe/Ti is 2.2 at% and N/O is 0.8 at% respectively. TiO2 powders were mixed with organic silicon and acrylic syrup to test their antibacterial performance by the colony counting method. The results show that the sterilization ratio of E. coli by the heat-treated (Fe, N)-doped nanocrystalline TiO2 powders is reached up to 94.5% while that of the powders without any heat treatment is 91.1% by 8 hours-400 lux-Visible-light irradiation with humidity of 55% RH.